Becker, Sackville

I've read 4 issues of Eclectic Reading, two issues of The New Scientist, one issue of Psychology Today, one issue of Cook's Illustrated, two issues of Men's Journal, two issues of The Economist, an issue of Vanity Fair, and an issue of The Globe. I also read three books: Knole and The Sackvilles, by Ricahrd Sackville, which was mildly entertaining, and then two literary biographies, which couldn't have made much of an impression because I can't remember who they were. Bully for me and my credibility as a reader. I'm now reading Hungry Ghosts, by Jasper Becker, about the 1960 famine in China, and it is if anything more devastating than reading about the Irish potato famine. Gosh.

Mirbeau, Moodie, Durrell

Since my last post, I've read three issues of Eclectic Reading, two issues of OK Magazine, two issues of The New Scientist, one issue of The Economist, and one issue of Hello Canada.

I also read an interminable biography of Octave Mirbeau, nearly 1000 pages, which I finished this week. There certainly was a lot of detail for a man know for a play, Les affaires sont les affaires, and a novel, Journal d'une femme de chambre. I also read a biography of Suzanne Moodie, an early Canadian writer. Her colonial experiences were so bad, I wonder she wrote at all, but she published quite a bit over time. And I also read a memoir by Laurence Durrell, which I found frankly insipid.